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Published on 02/03/1997 All articles from this issue

Children to testify out of sight of alleged molester, judge rules

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Family members were jubilant. In a first-ever decision for Santa Clara County, a judge ruled that two of the five alleged victims of child molestation at a Los Altos nursery school will be allowed to testify from outside the courtroom. Their testimony will be broadcast into court, live, by one-way video.

"These witnesses (both 5-year-old girls) are in abject fear. If there is the slightest suggestion of his (Stiritz) presence in the courtroom, these children will not be able to testify," Deputy District Attorney Linda Condron told Santa Clara County Municipal Court Judge John S. Pasco on Jan. 28.

After hearing testimony, Pasco ruled that "any consideration in this case will be given first to the children and then to protecting the rights of the defendant."

All five children were allegedly molested by James Alvin Stiritz, 62, during the 1995-1996 school year while he worked as a parent volunteer at the Los Altos Parent Preschool where his grandson also attended.

Stiritz, known around town as "Grandpa Jim," faces 15 charges and has been in custody since his arrest July 14 in Los Altos. He has been held without bail since Aug. 29.

Condron and defense attorney Mike Armstrong appeared before Pasco to negotiate the ground rules for how the alleged victims will be allowed to testify at the hearings beginning in March.

"I'm not aware of any cases in the state before with closed circuit TV used for testimony," Condron said. Because of a defendant's constitutional right to be confronted by the accuser, "this requires a tough standard."

The other alleged victims, all 4- and 5-year-old girls, will testify in court. But for them there will be a screen in front of Stiritz so that the little girls cannot see him. Someone with a video camera will film the children as they testify and that picture will be shown on a TV monitor set up on the other side of the screen in front of Stiritz.

"Even to get him (the judge) to order the screen and video was a big step," Condron said. "It is quite an accommodation."

Pasco heard testimony about the particular terror of the two little girls who will be able to testify outside the courtroom.

Diana Sullivan Everstine, a child psychologist who specializes in working with children and adults who have been traumatized, has been treating the two girls for several months.

She told the judge "both are terrified that if they tell what Grandpa Jim did, he will kill mommy and daddy and then chop them up in pieces and feed them to the sharks."

If they see Stiritz across the courtroom, they will think he's out of jail, she said.

"How do you explain jail and locked up to 5-year-olds?" Everstine asked.

Before Christmas she brought the girls on a tour of the court.

"As they were ready to leave the courtroom," said Sheriff's deputy Bill Horton who conducted the tour, "one of the girls knelt down in front of me.

"I knelt down to hear her. She had her head down. She was shaking.

"She said, 'Don't let him hurt me. Don't let him hurt me.'"

A family member told the court of an incident last summer at Safeway in Los Altos before any charges had been filed regarding Stiritz.

The little girl was in the grocery cart wearing a safety belt. Stiritz came over, the family member said.

"Stiritz said, 'Let me give you a hug.' The child said 'no.' Stiritz then tried to unbuckle her belt and give her a hug. He tried two times. I walked off.

"She (the child) started to cry. She peed her pants. She said, 'I don't want to hug that man.'"

The family member told the court that the little girl had been potty trained since she was 2 and there had not been any accidents.

A family member of an alleged victim who will be testifying from inside the courtroom, said she was happy with the ruling, "for anything that will protect our children."